by Joni Folger
“I saw Toby come out of Divia’s room with her yellin’ at him from the doorway like a fishwife. I waited for him to get into his car and drive away, and then I made my move.” He started to chuckle, and then to laugh out loud. “Boy howdy, you ought to have seen her face when she opened that door and saw me standing there. I’m surprised she didn’t pass right out from the shock of it.”
“What did she do?” Madison asked, thoroughly sucked into his story. “Did she invite you in?”
“Hell no! At least, not at first, but I can be very persuasive.”
“You brought the bottle of wine, right?” Elise asked. “And the cyanide, of course.”
“I told her not to worry. That I was only there to bury the hatchet and not to cause her any trouble. Told her that I just wanted to meet my son. I finally talked her into having a glass of wine with me, for old time’s sake.” The look he sent Elise then was a sly one. “She sat down on the edge of the bed and gave me the same worn, come-hither look that used to work on me so long ago. Well, I just let her think it was still working as I doctored her glass with the poison. Then I sat right there next to her and watched her drink it down.”
“Oh my God,” Madison whispered, and Elise watched her sister’s terrified eyes fill with tears.
Reaching out, Elise took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Showing their fear would do them no good. They had to hold on, keep him talking. Whatever happened, Elise wasn’t about to let him see how scared she really was.
“You cleaned up after?” she made herself ask, turning her attention back to Sam. “After …”
“After the poison took her? You bet. I washed out my glass and made sure I hadn’t left anything behind. I gotta say you had me worried earlier about what I might’ve missed.” His tone was so matter-of-fact, like he was talking about doing a bit of housekeeping. It turned Elise’s stomach.
“Look, I know how this is gonna sound,” he continued. “But after over twenty years of searching, of dreaming about finding my son and always just missing out, after every terrible thing that woman did, I enjoyed watching her die. I saw the light of understanding come into her eyes at the end, and it made me happy. When she realized what was happening, she grabbed a hold of me so hard she broke off some of her fake fingernails. Do you believe that?”
He shook his head, and Elise tried to look away from the horrible smile on his face and the look of pure evil that had settled in his eyes as he spoke of her death. But she found she couldn’t. It was like watching some horrifying yet oddly compelling event.
Looks like Divia has the last laugh, Sammy-boy. She was spot on in portraying you as the Devil incarnate … and right to be afraid.
“Anyway,” he said, waving the gun around and making her cringe. “We struggled some, and I shoved her away from me. She went down hard and hit her head on the edge of the dresser, and she didn’t get up after that.” He shrugged. “Then I cleaned up and left. Game over.”
Elise hated to ask but couldn’t help herself. She had to know. “Sam, did you kill Grace Vanderhouse, too?”
There was a long pause, but after a moment he blew out a breath. “Okay, I’m not proud of that, I’ll tell you right now. Where I’d planned out Divia’s demise for years—knew exactly how I’d play it if I ever got the chance—I swear as God is my witness, I never meant to harm that girl.”
“But … then why did you?” Madison asked staring at him in the rearview mirror. “What did she ever do to you? She and her father were as much Divia’s victims as you and Toby.”
“Yes. Now, that’s a true statement.” He cleared his throat. “But she gave me no choice. She just wouldn’t listen.”
“What do you mean, Sam?” Elise asked. “Wouldn’t listen about what?”
Sam’s gaze locked on her and a pained look crossed his face. “She’d come to the same conclusion that you had.”
“That Toby had killed his mother?”
“Yep.” He gave a brief nod. “She’d seen him goin’ into his momma’s room that night, and when she’d heard Divia had been killed and when it’d happened, she assumed he’d done it. She tried to get him to turn himself in, even after he swore to her that he hadn’t done it.”
Sam pointed a finger at Elise. “And she should have known better, mind you. They’d been family for a time. She should have known he wasn’t capable of doin’ something like that.”
He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts. “Anyway, Toby came to me about it, told me he hadn’t killed Divia, which of course, I knew, having delivered her to her maker myself. So I went and tried to talk to Grace that afternoon, tried to get her to just walk away, but she wouldn’t let it go. Said she was gonna have to tell the police if Toby didn’t turn himself in, that it was the right thing to do.”
“And so you protected Toby by removing the threat.” Elise raised a palm, pleading with the man. “But Sam, adding two more murders by killing us? Where will it end? If you let us go, I promise we won’t say anything. You can leave town and no one will ever know what really happened. Toby will be safe.”
Sam’s heavy sigh filled the air. “I really wish we could do that Elise, truly I do. But I don’t know that I can trust you. I need to clean up the field. You understand that, right?”
“But Sam—”
“No, the time for talkin’ is over, sweetheart. We’re all gonna get out of the car now and head into the fairgrounds.” He gave her a hard look, and she knew they’d run out of time. “Just so we’re clear, any funny business and I won’t hesitate to drop your sister where she stands. You get me?”
This was so not the way she wanted to die, nor was it in her to watch her sister die. She conjured the faces of her family in her mind, and a cold dread filled her heart.
And then there was Jackson. Their timing had never been good, but they’d just begun to find their rhythm. She’d be damned if this was how it was all going to end. She had to find a way out of this mess for both her and her sister.
“Yes, Sam,” Elise told him, “I get you.”
“Good deal. Now let’s move.”
twenty-five
They got out of the car and Sam took Madison by the arm again as they walked toward the fairground’s rear gate. He made Elise go ahead of them to keep an eye on her and to ensure that, as he put it, there was no ‘funny business’.
When they got to the gate, Elise eyed the thick chain that was wound through the links and the padlock holding it in place. Facing Sam, she raised an eyebrow. “This gate is locked. What do you propose we do? Fly over it?”
“Don’t be a smart-ass, El,” Madison hissed with a frightened look. “Are you trying to get him to shoot us right here?”
Elise shook her head. “Don’t worry, Maddy. Sam’s not going to shoot us out here in the open where anyone could drive by and see. Right, Sam?”
The man simply smiled, unfazed by her goading. “Don’t tempt me, little girl. We’re far enough out of town that it wouldn’t be that much of a worry. As for the locked gate? That’s not a problem, either. If you look a bit closer, you’ll find that I’ve been out here before—with bolt cutters.”
Elise did as he’d suggested, and with growing concern, realized he was right. The lock was just for show, the chain itself having been neatly snipped in two. He may not have meant to harm Grace Vanderhouse, but like Divia’s murder, he’d planned ahead to tie off the loose ends that she and Madison presented.
Keeping the gun pressed snuggly against Madison’s rib cage, he nodded toward the entrance. “Be quick, girl. Take the chain off and open the gate.”
She did as he asked and pushed the gate open wide. When she did, she could have sworn she’d caught movement up on the road. She hadn’t heard anything, but wondered if someone or something might be concealed behind the thick brush that grew along the highway. Not wanting to call his attention to what she may have
seen, she turned and began walking toward the area that had housed Restaurant Row during the festival.
Though she couldn’t be certain what she’d actually seen, or if it had been wishful thinking on her part, her mind went crazy with the possibilities. Of course, the best-case scenario—and the one she was rooting for with every fiber of her being—was that C.C. had contacted Jackson, and the cavalry was about to make their move. She didn’t know how much time she and Madison had left, but knew it couldn’t be long.
They continued down the thoroughfare and were almost to Restaurant Row when a loud report from the direction of the parking lot startled them all. It sounded like a gun shot, but could’ve been a car backfiring out on the road. Madison’s eyes widened, and she shot a look in Elise’s direction before Sam spun around, dragging her with him.
In that split second, Madison surprised them both by taking advantage of the distraction and the momentum, throwing a roundhouse punch that caught Sam square in the nose. It wasn’t enough to do lasting damage, but in that moment he grunted in pain and let go of her arm, which gave the women the only opportunity they were going to get.
“Run, El!” Madison yelled over her shoulder as she raced away, disappearing down an aisle before Sam could recover.
Elise didn’t waste any time in following her sister’s lead and sprinted down Restaurant Row to her right as fast as her legs would take her. Unfortunately, she’d lost sight of Madison, but she prayed that her sister would find a safe place to hide. The good news was that they’d gone down different aisles. At least for the moment, Sam would have to choose only one of them to follow.
At Sam’s angry bellow, Elise had the brief hope that Madison’s punch had bloodied the creep’s nose good. Darting into a booth about halfway up the aisle, she ducked behind the counter and prayed for deliverance.
“Elise, I know you’re here somewhere. Do not make me look for you.”
It seemed like Sam was in the next aisle over, but sound could be deceiving the way it echoed up and down the fairway like a wind-tunnel. For all she knew he could be right at the end of her row.
“You know I took the car keys from Madison,” Sam yelled. “Neither one of you can go anywhere, so you’re just postponing the inevitable. Might as well come out and face the music, get it over with.”
Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. Because we’re both just that stupid, you moron.
She wanted to scream at him to shut his pie hole—that he wasn’t going to get away with taking her or Madison from their family and friends. She longed to shout that Jackson would come for them, and then he’d be sorry. But to be honest, she wasn’t sure that would happen, at least not in time to save them. Then again, what if Jackson did come and Sam got the drop on him? She wasn’t sure she could take that, either.
Her heart was pounding so loud in her ears that she was certain he could hear it and would locate her by that alone. She backed up against the wall of the kiosk underneath the counter, pulling her legs up as close to her body as she could get them in hopes that she couldn’t be seen if he glanced into the booth. Terrified to make any sound that might give away her position, she squeezed her eyes shut and listened for anything that might indicate he was near.
As she sat there straining to hear the slightest noise, the loud bang when Sam kicked the front panel of a booth on the other side of the aisle was just about her undoing. Slapping her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming, she held her breath, afraid the next booth he checked would be hers.
Just when she was sure he was there just on the other side of the kiosk wall, there was another bang and she heard a sound that had her blood running cold. Madison’s scream.
Sam had found her sister.
Madison cried out, begging him not to hurt her. By the sound of it, he was dragging her toward the spot where Elise was hiding, and she had to stifle the urge to jump to her sister’s aid. That would only get them back to square one.
“All right, Elise,” he called after a moment. “It’s time to stop this foolishness. I’ve got Madison, as you can probably hear. Come out now, and I’ll make it quick for both of you.”
“Don’t do it, Elise.” Madison yelled, and then screamed again in pain. Elise could only imagine what Sam had done to elicit her sister’s agonized cry.
“If you don’t come out now, I will kill your sister right here. Then I’ll hunt you down and make you sorry you caused me so much trouble. And that’s a promise.”
Oh, dear God! She had no choice. If she stayed where she was, she’d have to listen to him killing Madison just yards away from where she was safely hidden. But if she came out they were both dead. Either way, they were screwed.
Elise was so scared she thought she might have a heart attack before Sam could kill her, but she took a deep breath, grabbed hold of her courage, and stood up to face him.
“Elise, no!” Madison sobbed.
With her pulse racing, Elise stepped out of the booth into the aisle. Pressing her lips together, she shook her head. “This is my fault, Maddy, and I won’t let you die alone because I stuck my nose where it didn’t belong.”
“Nobody else is going to die here,” a voice called from the end of the row.
Taken by surprise, Sam turned with his arm around Madison’s neck and dragged her with him back against the nearest booth.
Stunned, Elise looked down the aisle to where Jackson stood, flanked by Jim Stockton.
“Mr. Raymond, I’m going to need you to let go of Madison and drop the gun,” Jackson said, putting out a hand.
“That’s not going to happen, Deputy. Don’t you come any closer, or I’ll shoot both of these women,” Sam finished, waving the gun back and forth between Madison and Elise, who stood frozen in place a few feet away.
“You don’t want to do that,” Jackson said, his voice deadly calm. “Because if you harm either of them, Deputy Stockton here will drop you like a stone.” He gestured to Jim, who had pulled his service revolver and had it trained in Sam’s direction.
Unfortunately, Sam was using Madison as a shield, which would hamper a clear shot. But just when Elise was sure they were at a stalemate, Toby Raymond stepped from around the corner and joined the party.
“Dad? Please do as Jackson says and put down the weapon.”
“Toby? What are you doing here, son?”
“What am I doing here? Are you kidding me?” Shock chased disbelief across Toby’s face. “What are you doing?”
Sam licked his lips and his voice took on a quality of uncertainty. “I’m trying to protect you.”
“Protect me? How?” Toby’s eyes went wide with horror. “By killing my mother? Killing Grace?” He gestured toward Madison and then to Elise. “And how does harming two more innocent people protect me? Please don’t use me as an excuse to commit murder … again.”
“I didn’t mean to kill Grace. I swear. That was a mistake. But your momma’s death was justice, and not just for us. She deserved what she got. She started the ball rollin’ by taking you away from me all those years ago. And she destroyed more than one life along the way as she went. This whole thing is her doing, son.”
Toby shook his head. “No, Sam. You’re wrong. I’ve used that excuse for years to justify a lot of bad decisions on my part, but the truth is, I should have made better choices and been accountable for my own actions.” He took one step closer and then another. “Did Mom do a lot of terrible things over the years out of greed and vanity? Yes. Did she steal time from us by taking me and running away in the middle of the night? Absolutely. But nobody deserves what you did to her. Nobody.”
Elise had been still as a statue while Toby tried to talk his father out of more violence, but when Jackson stepped forward, she gasped. His attention momentarily diverted, Sam swung the gun briefly in her direction before waving it madly over Madison’s shoulder at Jackson.
“That’s f
ar enough, Deputy. Any closer and I start shooting.”
“Come on, Sam.” Jackson stopped moving and put up his hands. “You don’t want to do this. You start shooting, and it won’t end well for anyone.”
“Go ahead and test me,” the man suggested, pointing the gun directly at Jackson’s heart.
Elise could read the resolve in Sam’s eyes from where she stood and desperately tried to come up with a plan when Madison went into action surprising them all. The next twenty seconds were a flurry of activity that began with Madison’s elbow connecting with Sam’s mid-section followed by a heel to his instep, another shot to his nose, and ending with a knee to the groin.
The gun he held went flying, and Sam Raymond dropped to his knees before falling face first into the gravel.
They were all so stunned at the turn of events that no one said a word or made a move for another five seconds, or so. Then Madison leapt over Sam’s inert body and made a bee-line to where Jackson stood, with Elise only steps behind. He threw an arm around each of them as Jim collected Sam’s discarded gun and pulled out his handcuffs.
“Geez, Maddy. That was incredible … and a little scary,” Toby said, a pained look on his face as he watched the deputy cuff his father. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“I just remembered to sing,” Madison said with a wobbly smile and a wicked gleam in her eyes.
“I beg your pardon?” Jim looked up at her like she was some kind of strange new species. “Did you say sing?”
“Uh-huh.”
Jackson’s eyebrows dropped and he blinked several times. “What the hell does that even mean?”
“S-I-N-G. Solar plexus, instep, nose, groin.”
Elise burst into laughter at the look on Jackson’s face and hugged him up close for a moment. “Let me help you, sweetie. SING is from one of Maddy’s favorite movies, where Sandra Bullock plays a female F.B.I. agent who goes undercover in a beauty pageant. For her talent in the competition, she teaches the audience some basic self-defense using the acronym S-I-N-G.”